Welt



April 8, 1930. I D. P. CUMMINGS 1,753,333

WELT

Original Filed June 6, 1927 I lnven'ro'r.

Z David P Curnm/ipgs b mMkW ATTys Patented Apr. 8, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DAVID P. CUMMINGS, OF NEWTON CENTER, MASSACHUSETTS Original application filed June 6, 1927,

This invention relates to improvements in welts such as are employed in the manufacture of shoes and which may also be employed for other purposes such, for example, in the place of gimp in furniture, automobiles, and other places in which welting or similar materials are employed.

The general object of the invention is to flexible .and elastic binder, with the pile.

fibres extending in angular, preferably intermingled, relation to the plane of the woven body of the strip, wherebythe elasticity of the binder will permit relative'movem'ent of the intermingled pile fibres which'are embedded in the impregnating material, thus imparting great flexibility to the strip.

. A further object of the invention is to provide a welt of the character above specified in which the impregnating material provides a surface layer upon the woven side of the stri in which a groove for the stitching may be ormed in proximity to one edge.

A further object of the invention is toprovide a welt comprising a narrow strip of pile fabric having a woven body with relatively long pile fibres anchored thereto and 1mpregnated throughout with a permanently elastic composition and provided with a relatively thick coating adherent to and embedding portions of said pile fibres, with the pile fibres compacted to extend from the woven body of the fabric in angular intermingled relation with respect to the faces of the strip providing, in effect, a mat of interlaced fibres which will form an anchorage for the stitches by which the welt is secured in place.

lustrating a surface coatin Serial No. 196,771. Divided and this application filed January 2,

Serial No. 329,924.

A further object of the invention is to provide a welt comprising a double-face material having parallel webs of fabric connected bya pile common to both webs, impregnated throughout with a permanently flexible m binder compacted to cause the pile fibres to lie in angular relation to the faces of said webs of fabric, thoroughly impregnated throughout with a permanently elastic material adherent to said fibres and provided on 5 one or both faces with a relatively thick coating of elastic material coherent to said impregnating material.

These and otherobjects and features of the invention will more fully appear from the following description and the accompanying drawings and will be particularly pointed out in the claims. v

Illustrative embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which, I

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a welt, oneend portion being cut away, and illustrating in section the relative positions of the woven body of the pile fabric, the piles extending .therefrom, the lower surface layer and the coating layer; I

. Fig. 2 is a view partially inperspective ilsheet being applied to the impregnated pile fabric to form the welt illustrated in F ig.' 1; i I

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a preferred form of welt embodying my invention, provided with a groove extending longitudinally adjacent one edge thereof, adapted to receive stitches by which the weltmay be secured to the shoe or other device;

Fig. 4 is perspective view of a strip of welting formed of double-face material laving parallel webs of fabric connected by a pile common to both webs, impregnated by a permanently elastic binder and having coating layers upon the opposite faces thereof;

Fig. 5 is. a perspective view of the welt illustrated in Fig. 4, showing the manner in which a groove may be provided extending longitudinally of andadjacent to one of the edges of said strip;

Fig. 6 is a view, mainly in vertical section, illustrating in cross section a welt strip stitched to the upper and insole of a shoe and also stitched to the outsole thereof.

' The present application is a division of my prior application 'Serial No. 196,771, filed June 6, 1927, for improvements in flexible sheet material, and relates to a welt which may be produced by the method described in the aforesaid application. The preferred method consists in thorou hly impregnating the pile fabric, or a strip thereof of suitable width, with a suitable vaporizable, cementitious liquid, such as latex, pyroxylin, or resinous compositions, thereafter permitting or causing vaporization of the volatile content of the liquid, and then I ,of adhering to the pile fibres.

The coating may be applied under pressure in sheet form, or by spreading, and the'composition desirably is ofsuch character that it may be vulcanized while under pressure.

As illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawings the welt 1 comprises a narrow strip of pile fabric having a wovenbody 2 with the pile fibres 3 thereof woven into the body of the fabric.

with 3. preferably elastic binding material 4 which is ap lied in sufficient quantity to produce a surface layer 5 upon the fabric side of the welt. A coating 6 of flexible material, preferably coherent to the impregnating material and adherent to portions of the fibres, is applied to the impregnated pile fabric and preferably is compressed thereupon with sufficient force to cause portions of the fibres to be embedded, to a greater or less extent, in the body of coating material. The impregnated pile fibres 3 are compacted by the pressure which is applied in such a manner that said fibres lie in preferably intermingled angular relation to the planeof the woven body. Desirably Y the coating may be extended around the edges of the strip to provide walls 7 covering the otherwise exposed edges of the fabric 2.

The manner in which the coating may be applied in'sheet form is illustrated in Fig. 2

in which the piles 3 extend upwardly substantially perpendicular to the woven body 2 of the fabric. A sheet 6 of coating material, such as a sheet of unvulcanized rubber, is laid upon the pile surface and sufficient pressure applied to the sheet 6 and to the opposite face 5 of the strip of pile fabric to embed the ends of the pile fibres in the coating and to compact the strip into a relatively thin strip. The pressure thus applied bends the pile fibres in more or less intermingled angular relation to the plane of the body of the fabric, and when such pressure is applied during vulcanization the heat and pressure causes the impregnating material and the coating to soften sufiiciently to produce an intermingling of the material of the coating and impregnating material to produce intimate cohesion therebetween, and also to cause the end portions of the pile fabric to become more firmly united to the coating material.

As the pile of the fabric comprises numerous fibres ranging from ten .to forty thousand per square inch, (probably an average of twenty-five to thirty thousand per square inch) the intermingling and compacting of these fibres, which causes them to spread in diverging. directions from the vertical, produces in effect a sheet of intermingled fibres in more or les parallel relation to the face of the sheet and which are so permanently bound together by the impregnating material and by the coating as to provide a firm anchorage forthe stitches by which the welt is secured to portions of a shoe, or to any other base to which it may be applied.

The elasticity of the bin'dingmaterial 'fur- I thermore is such that holes punctured through the welt by a needle will be quickly closed upon withdrawal of the needle,'thereby preventing any water from passing through the stitching holes. The elasticity of, the binding -material so effectively restores the fibres, The pilefabric is impregnated throughoutwhich have been separated by the penetrating needle, to their original positions that repeated lines of stitching may be made through the welt without weakening it to any material degree. This is a great advantage as shoes having welts embodying the present inveiition may be re-soled several times without tearing the welt, whereas usual welts are weakened and frequently torn by even a second stitching.

Desirably a stitching groove 8 extends longitudinally in proximity to one edge thereof. This groove may be formed in any desired manner. Desirably it is formed by pressing a cylindrical, or preferably semicylindrical, rod into the surface layer 5'upon the fabric side of the welt, as illustrated in,

Fig. 3, in which case the body of the fabric will not be severed or otherwise damaged.

The opposite face of the welt may be beveled to present an inclined surface 9 extendmg approm'mately from the line of the groove to the proximate edge of the strip, as illustrated in Fig. 3.

In Fig. 4 a different embodiment of the invention is shown in which the welt is constructed from a strip of double-faced pile fabric. comprises woven webs of fabric 10 and 11 with a pile 12 common to both webs.

The strips of pile fabric are impregnated in the manner aforesaid and one or both may be provided with a surface coating 13 and compressed as above described to cause the coating to penetrate to a greater or less extent through the fabric webs into cohesion with the impregnating material. thereby producing a trong adhesion of the impregnating material and coating to the fibres of the pile. A channel may be formed in the coating on one side by pressing a bar ll having a suitable cross section into the upper layer during the compression of the impregnated and coated fabric in the manner above described.

One of the uses to which the invention is particularly applicable is illustrated in Fig.

6 in which a welt embodying the invention is shown as applied to a shoe. In this construction the welt l is connected by a line of stitching 15 to the upper 16 and to the lip 17 of the inner sole 18. and it will be observed that the loop 19 of the stitches 15 lies in the groove 8 of the welt and engage the web 2 of fabric. The pile fibres, which extend in angular relation to theplaneof this web. cross the plane of the line of stitching and as there are a large number, in fact several hundred of such pile fibres, crossing the line of stitching. an anchorage is produced which cannot be torn out by the tension on the stitching of the welt to the insole and upper. or during the subsequent use of the shoe. Furthermore. the elasticity of the binding material will cause a con traction which will close the needle holes promptly after the needle has been withdrawn, thereby making the seam water-tight.

The welt 1 is stitched to the outsole by a line of stitching 20 in the usual manner.

By virtue of the construction above described shoes can be re-soled several times for the reason that the fibres of the pile are so massed together that the penetration of the needle through the mass merely separates the fibres temporarily during the passage of the needle and upon withdrawal of the needle and locking of the thread the elasticity of the impregnating material and of the layers will promptly close the holes so that subsequently'the welt is not weakened to any substantial extent by the stitching which secures the welt to the sole even though the welt is stitched several times along substantially the same line.

It will be understood that the embodiments of the invention particularly disclosed herein are of an illustrative character and that various materials having characteristics The pile fabric illustrated thereinherein described may beemployed, and that any suitable method may be used for producing the welt forming the subject matt-ter of this application within the meaning and scope of the following claims. It will also be understood that while the welt particularly described herein is designed for use in shoe manufacture. such welting may be employed for any use to which it is adapted.

Having thus described the invention. what is claimed as new, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent. is:

1. A welt comprising a narrow strip of pile fabric having a woven body with long pile fibres woven into said body and impregnated throughout with a permanently flexible binder and compacted to extend in angular relation to the plane of said woven body, and having a surface coating coherent with said binder.

2. A welt comprising a narrow strip of pile fabric having a woven body with long pile fibres woven into said body. impregnated throughout with a permanently elastic composition and compacted to extend therefrom in intermingled angular relation to the plane of said woven body and presenting a surface layer of said impregnating material upon the fabric side of saidstrip, and having on the opposite side a surface coating of material coherent with said impregnating material.

3. A welt comprising a narrow strip of pile fabric having a woven body of relatively long fibres anchored at one end thereto. impregnated throughout with a permanently elastic composition and compacted to extend therefrom in intermingled angular relation to the plane of said woven body and presenting a surface layer of said impregnating material upon the fabric side of said strip, said surface layer of impregnating material being provided with a groove to receive stitches extending longitudinally of and in proximity to one edge of the strip, a relatively thick surface coating of elastic material on the opposite side of said strip adherent to and embedding portions of said pile fibres and beveled from approximately the position of the groove to said proximate edge.

4. An elastically vulcanized welt comprisinga narow strip of pile fabric having a woven body with the pile fibres woven into the body, impregnated throughout with latex and presenting upon the fabric side thereof a. surface layer of said impregnating material, and a coating of rubber-containing material upon the opposite side of said strip coherent with the latex impregnation and embedding and adherent to portions of said pile fibres.

5. An elastically vulcanized welt comprising a narow strip of pile fabric having a woven body with the pile fibres woven into the body, impregnated throughout with latex and presenting upon the fabric side thereof a surface layer of said impregnating material, and a coating of rubber-containing material upon the opposite side of said strip coherent With the latex impregnation and embedding and adherent to portions of said pile fibres, the surface layer being provided .With a groove to receive stitches extending longitudinally of and in proximity to one edge of said strip and the opposite side of said strip being beveled from approximately the position of the groove to said edge.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

7 DAVID P. CUMMINGS. 

